As soon as Alice managed to get the vine free from the man's mouth he began to cough and sputter slightly, his eyes snapping to meet Alice's intent on thanking her. "Thank yo—" he began, only for his words to catch in his throat. His eyes widened as a mix of shock and terror flooding his face. "Y-y-you! What are you doing here!" he practically shrieked, a raw primal fear echoing in his voice as it waved.
Alice in turn just stared, utterly confused at the man. The sudden outburst caused John and Elena, who John had just convinced to leave Greeny to her recovery and assist with the captive, to turn and approach them.
"It wasn't me! All I did was take the root out of his mouth and he seemed really thankful for it until he wasn't! Then he just screamed and… stuff! I didn't even touch him, I promise!" Alice hastily defended, hands waving frantically in front of her as John eyed her with a sceptical gaze.
"Mhm," John hummed, turning to Elena. "Elena, who exactly is this guy? And why did you capture him lin such a unique way?" He looked between her and the man bound in thick vines.
"Sorry Master, but we don't really know," Elena explained with an unnerving innocence as she tilted her head to the side yet entirely uncaring about her method of capture, her morals clearly not aligning with any standard definitions of restraint. "He showed up a few minutes before you did, so we decided to use him as a way to get your attention to bring you to me so we could officially meet. Before you where noticed we were about to use him as a source of nutrients." She then turned her gaze to the mystery man.
"So, care to shed some light on who you are?" John asked, his voice calm yet carrying a cold, iron-like hardness. "Along with why our sweet little Alice seems to scare you so much even though it doesn't seem like you've met before? Oh and don't think of lying. No, wait, please do. It would give me a good reason to have you become plant food for my lovely Elena over here."
"Who in the hell even are you? Let me go!" the man cried out, panic and frustration clear in his voice but also carrying an oddly compelling tone. "I can't have my time wasted here! I need to prepare for everything! I need to change things and make sure things don't hit another bad end this time! Just let me go and also make sure to help me end her, I'm sure if me, you and the plants work together we can free you from her grasp and stop the horrors she will bring in the future if left alive, you may not realize it but the evil she will bring can rival or become even worse than those who are playing with our world!"
John looked at him again, then turned to Alice who seemed to have lost interest as she tried to balance the scythe with her forehead, moving over to her he took the knife she had in hand causing her to lose focus but grab and twirl the scythe before holding it at her side, looking between John and the bound man in mild confusion. Shaking his head he turned back to the man in the vines. "Now, there are a few issues there, especially with what you said and what your trying. For starters, you haven't told me who you are even after I asked. Next, she's in my grasp not the other way around so clearly there's some weird misconception there. You also didn't even try to explain how you know her and it's honestly something I'm quite curious about, especially your description of her. But I'm sure as hell not about to allow you to harm her for something as stupid as what she might do when she hasn't actually done anything except look out for me, save my life and prove to be a good friend and help whenever I need it. Lastly, I could practically feel you trying to mess with my head there, tsk, tsk, tsk. That's something rather stupid to try you know."
John leaned in close, lightly running the blade across the man's throat just enough to break the skin. A small rivulet of blood traced a path down his neck before pointing the knife at his arm getting a wide eyed and shocked look filled with fear and confusion from the captive.
"Now, I'd suggest you explain things better and honestly this time, without the compulsions," John continued, his voice a silken threat. "Else I can show you how very creative I can get with trying to get answers, putting all my knowledge from rather gory anime to use. I'm sure your smart enough to avoid such a fate so you're going to answer my questions now, right?"
The man gave a small, jerky nod.
"To tell you why I feel like I do about her," he began, tilting his head towards Alice, his eyes burning with a mix of anger and terror as said girl tilted her head in confusion well casting almost hungry looks at John with a deep blush. "I need to explain my chosen class. When the world changed, what I chose for mine in a massive panic was called Clockwork. All I got was a pocket watch with a bunch of different hands on it. Some around me became horrid flesh puddles and deformed masses well the rest either lost their mind, killed each other or rushed away to escape. I was one of the people who escaped. It was hard to survive and it was mostly by luck. It took weeks before the military, or what was left of it managed to intervene. They had refugee camps, controlled by surviving government members and eventually created a central survivor base that rivalled the other powerful factions."
He paused before letting out a humourless chuckle. "In that time though, events began to happened, first came challenges and missions to give people chances to get items and coins, which quickly became the new currency and used between people and with traders. I also came to realize people no longer had any sense of empathy or remorse or even their former humanity, not even me. I realized pretty early that taking a life had become as easy as breathing and just as natural. Probably a side effect from the class changes, or to make it easier – a small mercy to help us, I guess."
John's grip tightened on the knife, his gaze turning colder, while Alice peered curiously between the two before focusing and trying to look closer at John, wondering if this was why he seemed so different today. Elena meanwhile stood by his side, seemingly unconcerned by the gravity of the man's words.
"I managed to get into the governments camp early on before splintering off and creating my own camp." the man continued. "Then over the years it grew into a small city where I managed to made my own mark well ruling it under the government's protection. Turns out the pocket watch let me slowly manipulate time in various ways in exchange for experience or anything of equivalent value including coins. I used that ability to build up a fortune and a good life in the future, using money to make more money and then having it all! Money, women and power you can't even begin to imagine. Then she came."
He had smiled at first, a brief triumphant flash of self-importance and greed before his eyes narrowed into a furious glare locked onto Alice. Confused, Alice pointed to herself with a questioning tilt of her head as if to ask if he meant her.
"The Mad Queen Alice, the bloody empress" he snarled. "She came with her twisted wonderland horrors and began twisting the entire city with her madness, claiming it fell under her territory so she could do with it as she pleased. She was too strong to stop, so I used all the experience I had built up, the lives of everyone I could get close to at the time and every bit of wealth I had to jump back as far as I could, to stop her from destroying what I would have built up in the future. So I could do things better and know what to do and not to do."
John nodded slowly, letting out a sigh. He lowered the knife, then passed it back to a still-confused Alice. "So you're a regressor, probably the main character of your own little story or something," John surmised before shaking his head. He'd read enough to know this guy fell into one of two types, either he was someone who gets lost in their own power and keeps going without a care who ends up forgetting or growing past the small figures of their past reverting them to afterthoughts or someone who uses every cheat they can for their own benefit regardless of the consequences or ripples it could cause, not caring how it would affect others as he robbed them of their achievements to further himself. "I suppose that's why you want to kill my cute little Alice over here, so she can't become a thorn in your future."
"I tried that!" the man yelled back clearly exasperated. "Do you think this is my first time going back? It's not! I've tried over and over and over! The first time back I tracked her down and killed her quickly, things went smoothly after that until the Burning Light Priestess destroyed everything instead! I tried having Alice there as an ally and we got pretty far and changed a lot of things as we took an even bigger chunk of territory than I had ever had before and after, but then an army of monstrous beastmen ripped us and our territory apart! Either alone or with others, I kept going on, getting further each time and cutting off each threat and thorn as I grew my empire but that woman always leads to death and destruction if left alive and outside of my control!" He began to laugh, a hysterical and manic sound as he seemed to spiral into despair.
John punched him across the face causing a sharp, cracking sound to echo. "Snap the fuck out of it! You still have things to answer and I'm not going to let you lose yourself till I get them. Besides, if you've done it so many times, shouldn't you know how to get out of this and me? Shouldn't having more each time also mean you have a better start each time you snap back or did something fuck you over this time?" John questioned. If this man truly was a regressor who had lived through these events' multiple times he could be an invaluable source of information about what to expect and how to grow stronger along with being able to give them knowledge of what to expect.
"You!" the man choked out angrily, blood welling in his mouth, though his eyes still blazed with a manic fire as he seemed to try and burn John with his gaze. "It isn't random and hasn't ever 'fucked me over' as you so crudely stated. Or at least, it's never done it before, as for how it works, I doubt you would understand its mechanics but every other time it's always been the day of the change I return to. The same place right after I made my choice. This time was different though and I don't know why. Spiritual-aware plants like these shouldn't even be a thing for at least a few months! The order of change goes: people, then monster and other-world elements being introduced, animal mutations and lastly the plants since they need the most time to adapt and change well allowing people a chance to still survive on plants. Sometimes they would be in a different order every single time plants would always last to ensure people don't starve to death and because it needs the most work and attention, which is why this, all of this is so wrong! And you! In none of the times I've been in has Alice had a companion like you. Plenty of slaves for fighting or warming her bed sure, hell even I was captured and trained into both roles before but shes never a companion or a fat guy like you ever! Her tastes were always athletic, sexy or generally attractive, not… well, you." He glared harder at John, clearly furious about being hit and unable to retaliate but also faint hints of jealousy could be seen as he glanced between him and Alice.
"What makes you think that would be my tastes?" Alice piped up, pulling a sour face at his words before her tone shifted from indignant to a more slow, delightfully perverse. "Or that I even know myself what I'm into! For all you know I might be focused on making two of myself and then loving only myself! Or doing that and three-waying with John here! Yes! That is now my goal for how to seduce him!" Her face flushed bright red, a small trail of drool escaping the corner of her lips as she lost herself entirely in her fantasy.
John sighed, shaking his head. "And this," the John scoffed, gesturing dismissively at Alice, "is someone you claim will become some ultimate evil? Buddy, I've seen more threatening tomatoes than her."
A confused and incredulous expression slowly settled on the man's face as he looked between John and Alice.
"But, but it's true," the man stammered, his voice laced with genuine bewilderment. "Every time I've known her, every time I've seen her, she's never been interested in 'fat people' that way! Making it clear about her type and tastes, when it came to those she felt where slightly to large or didn't meet her standard as trainable it would be common for her to torture or toy them to death never anything close to a romantic interest and sure as hell never anything like this! She's also never seemed this... dumb. What the hell did you do? Who even are you!" His questions were aimed directly at John, the situation seemingly unravelling his very perception of reality. The image he held of Alice was shattering, dissolving into a chaotic mess of confusion that quickly turned into a burning anger towards John.
John rubbed his eyes as a dull throb began to form behind them. He processed the man's words with a knowing ache settling in his gut. He felt he understood what had happened a bit better now and he didn't like it one bit.
"Alright, let's start with a name, buddy," John said, his voice weary but firm. "Because I need something to call you. If you decided you don't want to then I'll just have Alice find something to call you for me. She will also get to toy and play with you if you decided you don't want to answer my questions." He paused, a different thought emerging as he gave the man a curious look. "Also, are you by any chance a fan of anime or games? Or rather, do you remember either before all your 'jumps' and stuff?"
The man offered a blank, somewhat bewildered look in response.
"Oooh, we can call him Green Hat Man!" Alice interjected suddenly, her voice bright and unexpected. She seemed to have snapped out of her earlier daze, startling both John and the man with her abrupt outburst.
"No, no, there's no need for that," the man quickly interjected, trying a new approach as he smothered his anger. "My name's Dave and I think we got off on the wrong foot. Can you please let me go? And what does any of that—" he gestured vaguely at John's anime question "—have to do with why things are so different?" His confusion was genuine, even Alice seemed both puzzled and intrigued, wondering where John was going with this but knew she would probably find the answer interesting.
John sighed and lowered his head for a moment as he rubbed his temples this time in an attempt to to ward off the burgeoning headache that had moved from behind his eyes to his head before looking back up, his eyes heavy with a mix of fatigue and unease. "I think I still have the anime adaptation on my PC; I'll try to get it for you later. But it involves a pretty good explanation of string theory and the ripple effect of changes. To sum it up the protagonist had to jump to a timeline next to his own, one that was outside the current thread he was in, or something like that. It's been a long time since I watched it and had seen many more anime since then so it's a bit foggy. It was called Steins;Gate. It was one of those you either love it or hate, I guess. Why it relates to you is because I think you jumped to a parallel timeline to your own that runs directly next to it, at least that's my best current guess after your 'explanation'."
With that he turned his attention away from Dave and returned it to Elena as the vibrant green vines around Dave tightened slightly in response to his shift in focus. "Elena, we're going to be heading out for now. Could you bring him to the exit and slowly retract your vines as I wrap my chains around him once we're there? It'll be just like what I did with Greeny to keep him restrained and captive well outside the greenhouse."
"Only if you promise to visit often Master!" Elena replied, her voice filled with eager excitement as a bright smile bloomed on her verdant face. "We all would be happy to help you any way we can!"
John nodded, offering a gentle smile. "I definitely will do my nest. You're all special to me after all and I have a lot of things you can help with, admittedly it's mostly healing stuff but it would be a massive help my dear friends." He spoke in a soft, reassuring tone Elena guided them toward the exit. Despite the significant pain he felt radiating through his own body, he couldn't help but show a brighter side to his green garden companions, feeling genuinely happy that they could now be interacted with far better than ever before well refusing to allow them to see the pain and strain he was currently in, not wanting them to worry about him.